No more subtitles for Hollywood Flicks in Japan?

I’m not sure how I feel about this one…I’ve always enjoyed the greeting from film translator, Natsuko Toda, at the theater before every movie. But, in a push to attract younger audiences to Hollywood pics, Paramount Japan has taken the unusual step of dubbing nearly half of the prints for current release “Shutter Island.” It seems that not only do younger film-goers prefer not to read, but the spate of 3D releases is harder to appreciate while reading subtitles at the same time. Japan has long been a theatrical market where subtitles rule for all but kid-targeted toons and live-action pics such as the “Harry Potter” series. Foreign pics on network TV, however, are commonly dubbed.